Lawmakers react to House speaker’s departure plan

By Dan Freedman

Published 8:18 pm, Friday, September 25, 2015

Photo: ZACH GIBSON / New York Times

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) holds a news conference to announce he will give up his House seat, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 25, 2015. Under intense pressure from conservatives in his party, Boehner said Friday that he would resign from one of the most powerful positions in government at the end of October. (Zach Gibson/The New York Times) less

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) holds a news conference to announce he will give up his House seat, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 25, 2015. Under intense pressure from conservatives in his party, ... more

Photo: ZACH GIBSON / New York Times

Lawmakers react to House speaker’s departure plan

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WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner’s surprise decision Friday to depart at the end of October shuffled the political deck on Republican-controlled Capitol Hill, but Connecticut’s all-Democrat delegation is largely on the outside looking in.

The announcement came the day after Pope Francis responded to Boehner’s invitation and delivered a historic address to a joint session of Congress. But notwithstanding the pope’s call for putting partisan politics aside, Boehner’s fall was a direct result of his battles with the tea party wing of the Republican Party.